Book description
What began life as a simple Web animation tool has evolved into a powerful platform for Web application development—which means that if you’re serious about developing for the Web, you need to get serious about learning Flash. With its breakthrough motion-graphics capabilities and powerful run-time effects, Flash 8 provides the tools, authoring power, and rich video capabilities you need to provide stunning interactive content. This Macromedia-certified guide provides the key to learning the basics of Flash 8. Through a series of hands-on projects, master trainer James English provides a firm foundation in everything Flash—from graphics, animation, and video to ActionScript fundamentals. Simple step-by-step instructions and tons of screenshots guide you through the process of creating buttons and links, drawing and animating in Flash, formatting text, adding video and sound, loading data, and more—in short, everything you need to develop sophisticated, professional-looking Web sites. A companion CD includes the lesson files needed to complete the book’s projects as well as a trial version of the program itself.
Table of contents
- Copyright
- Bio
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
-
1. Learning the Basics
- What You Will Learn
- Approximate Time
- Lesson Files
- Introducing Flash 8
- Looking at the Flash Workspace
- Creating Your First Flash 8 Document
- Working with Panels
- Using the Timeline and Frames
- Working with Layers
- Setting Your Preferences
- Testing an FLA File
- Finding Help
- Exploring the Project
- What You Have Learned
-
2. Creating Graphics
- What You Will Learn
- Approximate Time
- Lesson Files
- Using the Tools Panel
- Learning About Fills and Strokes
- Using Vector and Bitmap Images
- Using Color
- Creating Graphics with Drawing Tools
- Using Guides, Grids, Coordinates, and Snapping
- Creating a New Graphic Symbol
- Creating and Using Masks
- Adding Strokes
- Using the Library
- Importing and Optimizing Bitmaps
- Importing Vector Drawings
- Using Fills and Gradients
- Manipulating Graphics
- What You Have Learned
-
3. Using Text
- What You Will Learn
- Approximate Time
- Lesson Files
- Using the Text Tool
- Understanding Static Text and Device Fonts
- Adding Static Text to a Document
- Using Embedded Fonts
- Looking at Font Properties
- Adding a Timeline Effect to a Text Field
- Spell Check Your Document
- Using Text-Based Components
- Understanding Dynamic Text Fields
- What You Have Learned
-
4. Creating and Editing Symbols
- What You Will Learn
- Approximate Time
- Lesson Files
- Symbols Explained
- Creating and Editing Symbols on the Stage
- Looking at Symbols in the Library
- Nesting Symbols and Timelines
- Revisiting Graphic Symbols
- Creating Buttons
- Placing the Buttons On the Stage
- Creating Text Buttons
- Creating an Invisible Button
- Creating and Using Movie Clips
- Creating the Menu
- Creating Movie Clip Buttons
- Duplicating Symbols and Adding Symbols to the Stage
- What You Have Learned
- 5. Creating Animations
-
6. Adding Basic Interactivity
- What You Will Learn
- Approximate Time
- Lesson Files
- Making Flash Documents Interactive
- Introducing Behaviors
- Using a Behavior to Load a JPEG
- Using Behaviors to Open a Web Page
- Loading an External SWF File with a Component
- Introducing Script Assist
- Using Actions to Control the Timeline
- Creating a Home Button
- Removing the Hand Cursor
- Making the Movie Clip Button Work
- Using the Script Navigator and Pins
- What You Have Learned
-
7. Adding Sound and Video
- What You Will Learn
- Approximate Time
- Lesson Files
- Using Sound and Video
- Editing Sound and Video
- Assuming Responsibility with Your Media
- Compression, Codecs, and Plug-ins
- Delivering Media Online
- File Size Considerations
- Importing Sound into a Document
- Adding and Customizing Sound
- Adding Sound to a Button
- Importing Video into Flash
- Encoding the Video
- What You Have Learned
- 8. Creating Forms Using Components
-
9. Learning ActionScript Basics
- What You Will Learn
- Approximate Time
- Lesson Files
- Learning about ActionScript 2.0
- Learning About Classes, Methods, and Properties
- Looking at Methods and Properties
- Learning How to Use Strict Data Typing
- Using Code Hints in the Actions Panel
- Using Functions and Conditional Statements
- Understanding Scope
- Using _root, _parent, this, and Levels
- Understanding LoadVars
- Creating the Reviews Page
- Using Events and Handlers
- Using Listeners
- Adding a Listener to the Reviews Page
- Adding Cascading Style Sheet Formatting to the Reviews
- Creating the Catalog Pages
- Building the Main Catalog
- Creating the News Page
- Building the Home Page
- Animating the Menu
- Controlling the Menu’s Buttons
- What You Have Learned
-
10. Loading and Optimizing Flash Content
- What You Will Learn
- Approximate Time
- Lesson Files
- Optimizing Flash Documents
- Organizing Applications and Using Good Practices
- Understanding Usability
- Optimizing Animation
- Making a Background More Efficient with Runtime Bitmap Caching
- Understanding Bandwidth and File Size
- Considering User Platforms
- Loading External Content
- Loading Content into the Main Application
- Sending Data Out of Flash
- Adding the ProgressBar Component
- Loading the Tech Bookstore
- Testing and Debugging the Tech Bookstore
- What You Have Learned
- 11. Publishing Flash Documents
- A. Installing Extensions
- B. Resources
- C. Keyboard Shortcuts
- Training from the Source
Product information
- Title: Macromedia Flash 8: Training from the Source
- Author(s):
- Release date: October 2005
- Publisher(s): Adobe Press
- ISBN: 9780321336293
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